Enslaved To The Educational System

3 Pages 760 Words

Enslaved to the Educational System

As Canada races towards the 21st century, the value of teachers has decreased steadily and the demand for teachers has fluctuated dramatically, from a slight shortage to a serious shortage. In regards to this dilemma, Ontario’s Education Minister and governmental officials sought forceful solutions in which teachers would voluntary surrender their moderate schedule for a “workload increase by one-third” and “compulsory unpaid overtime” (Robertson 2). “For one term in two, teachers have no preparation time at all” and few options were available, consequently many teachers excluded extra-curricular activities from their agenda (Robertson 2). This ultimately shifted issues towards a different arena, thereby producing insufficient coaches and trainers. Accordingly, the minister and government demanded “volunteerism to be compulsory” or employment would cease (Robertson 1). By undervaluing and enslaving teachers to these demands, Ontario is inevitably creating an unstable society in which education is not viewed as important. When will society recognize the connections between social order, economic incentive, and effective educators that shape the nations youth?

Teachers hold great power and control in shaping an orderly, intelligent society; however, “the Ontario Ministry of education has defined every problem in the education system as a function of too much teacher influence and too little provincial authority” (Robertson 1). However, by making education and teachers less of a national priority, Ontario leaders transfer a distorted message that teachers are neither valuable nor important. Teacher’s mere purpose is to improve education and advance the interests of educators, but with governmental interference, teachers have more barricades to tear down to efficiently perform their job. Nevertheless, teaching traditionally has been one of the lowest-paying jobs avail...